Efficiency, incentives and sustainability

The research group includes health economists, social scientists and public health specialists. The group aims at developing research in two areas related to health economics:

• Economic evaluation;
• Providers´ payment mechanisms.

The researchers aim at studying population-based public health interventions. This way they have been working on the cost-effectiveness of tobacco control policies. 

The research will be devoted to exploring and understanding the impact of pay-for-performance, with a particular focus on primary care, aiming also at formulating recommendations for the most adequate design of pay-for-performance schemes.

In terms of methodology, the Research Group develops projects predominantly in the area of the health system and services, developing retrospective or prospective analyses, using mainly qualitative methodologies, namely in-depth interviews, questionnaire surveys addressed to experts, patients and/or citizens, decision support techniques, as a process of group dynamics (brainstorming, benchmarking, nominal group, delphi, focus group, etc.), systematic literature review, complemented in some of the research by quantitative methodologies, through the use of hospital generated and patients databases, developed from data collection of clinical records and complementary diagnostic tools, in particular demographic data specific to the analysis underway. The most commonly used tools for the analysis are the SPSS or SAS programs.